BURNSIDE — A Bronzeville woman is trying to get students to think like millionaires.
X'ernona Woods brought Kid Millionaire, an after-school program, to Harold Washington Elementary School in Burnside last year.
In the program, she teaches financial literacy to 18 students of all ages. They're taught the importance of saving money and learn about investing in stocks and concepts such as liabilities and assets and profits and losses.
Woods targets students so they can build good financial habits early and become “financially healthy.”
“At this age they are like sponges; they soak up everything,” Woods said. “You can impart knowledge with them and they don’t reject it. It’s embraced.”
The school’s assistant principal, Brian L. Roberts, said the students are “more than happy with her.”
“Some after-school programs, you have to catch the students five minutes before they walk out the door just to ensure they come, but her students are there rain, sleet or snow,” he said.
The students meet four days a week for an hour and a half. At a class last week, they read a story about a little boy named Rufus who decided that instead of buying a tube of toothpaste, he could make his own.
To keep the students engaged, Woods had them make their own toothpaste with baking soda, vanilla extract and nutmeg. When asked how it tasted, the students shouted out “It’s nasty,” “disgusting,” and “salty.”
After their experiment, they filled out a sheet with questions. One of the questions was “Does the taste of the toothpaste matter?”
Woods wanted them to understand that if a product doesn’t taste good, they won’t profit from it.
Since she has been at Harold Washington, she has already made a difference in her student’s lives.
Parent volunteer Alicia Blunt said she has noticed a big change in her two daughters’ spending habits.
“When I would normally give them allowance, it would be gone in a day,” Blunt said. “Now they’ll hold on to it for about two weeks, so I see a big difference.”
Enrolling her daughters in the program was a good decision, she said.
“They like to spend money, so I want them to learn how to save it,” Blunt said.
The lessons are working said Blunt’s daughter, Tamia Watson, 12, who called the program “fun.”
“I like how she explains to me how I can manage my money and how to spend it on stuff that’s needed and not wanted,” Tamia said.
Her allowance of $25 used to go toward junk food and jewelry, she said, but now she saves it.
Tamia’s sister Jamiyah Howard, 7, also likes the program.
“I like that Ms. Woods teaches us about how to save our money and what to spend it on,” Jamiyah said, adding that she’s thinking about ways to become a millionaire now.
Woods is the author of “Save that Penny for a Sunny Day.” She created a wealth-building kit that comes with her book, a workbook and lesson plans. Some of the other items included are financial literacy plays, classroom activity books, mock credit cards and checks and more.
Marquette Bank sponsored a financial literacy essay contest for Chicago Public Schools students in 2009 to help promote her book. The bank’s director of marketing and communications, Jeff MacDonald, said he was “blown away by her energy level and commitment to financial education.”
“Ms. Woods has touched the lives of hundreds of children and parents in Chicago by sharing her positive prosperity mindset and helping spread financial literacy,” he said. “She is deeply invested in the children she teaches. Her message is not only one of hope and prosperity, but she gives children and their parents the knowledge and tools needed to financially thrive in life.”
Woods said she became passionate about teaching kids financial literacy after her mother died in 1995 from cancer and left her a significant inheritance while she was a college student.
“The love that my mother gave me — she gave me so much love — I’m just bursting with it, so I have to give to somebody,” she said.
Woods has worked with the Shriver National Poverty Center of Law, the city’s various after-school programs and the University of Chicago Excel Program. In addition to Harold Washington, she has worked extensively with Mayo and Robert A. Black and other CPS elementary schools. In 2007, Woods became a partner with the Chicago Federal Reserve Money Smart Week.
Woods takes her students on field trips to expose them to new things. They’ve flown with African-American pilots, had picnics at the zoo and more.
“Not everything has to be a financial literacy trip,” Woods said. “As they grow and connect with their millionaire mindset, they’re going to do things that aren’t the norm of what other kids are doing.”
Her ultimate goal is to create the Kid Millionaire School of Business and Economic Intelligence. She wants to help create jobs through the school. Woods envisions a neighborhood cleaning crew and construction workers from within the community rehabbing abandoned homes.
“I see our community being rejuvenated through the Kid Millionaire School of Business and Economic Intelligence,” Woods said.
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